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Does anyone here play a tele through a solid state amp? Can you comment on the sound?
I am thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and getting a telecaster or telecaster-style guitar. (Considering going all out and ordering a Hahn.) The only tube amp I have is a Mesa Boogie, which weighs a ton, lives in my garage, and hasn't seen any action since my youthful rock & roll days. I'm not particularly interested in acquiring another amp, but if I have to in order to bring out the best in the tele, I guess I'll go that route. Would be nice, though, if I could make it work with my Clarus head and Raezor cabinet or my orange cube.
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06-01-2018 04:01 PM
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Its not a problem, sounds just like a . . . Tele.
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Plug it in and experiment with settings on your Clarus. I find it works better with mine to set the master volume at about 2:00 and use the channel gain to adjust the overall volume. My Teles sound fine through my Clarus and RE cab. Also sound fine through my Cube 60. And sound fine through my tweed Deluxe. With the SS amps you don't get that edge-of-breakup sound, but there are other ways to get that going if you want it.
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FouronSix,
Please do some recent research on ordering a new Hahn (check TGP, etc.) …
There are so many fine makers of tele-style guitars, so look around!
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That's all I do - a Tele pretty much sounds like a Tele. Granted, I did thoroughly enjoy playing my '68 through a '71 Super Reverb for about thirty five years but those days are gone and I have to be more practical about what I can lift without ruining the old back. I do have a heavy Evans JE200 that I'm using for steel but it will probably go soon or be relegated to home use only (overkill!). I've gone smaller (and lighter) the past few years and currently have: Boss Katana 50 (super amp!), plus, a G&K MB200 and a DV Mark Micro 50 Jazz with various homebrew cabinets to go with them. Personally, I don't think the SS amps seem to have the sparkle that the old Super had but maybe it's just me and my aging ears. Really, a good Tele (and you don't have to spend a bunch of money on one unless it's an ego thing - the Squiers are GREAT) along with a BF Princeton Reverb or Vibrolux is about as good as it gets but the SS stuff does OK.
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My tele through a solid state:
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What Skip said about inexpensive Teles. My first Tele was/is a Squier Affinity- MIC and $180 new. It sounds... like a Tele. I did upgrade the pickups and electronics to Dimarzio Area T's and CTS pots, but really that was to kill the hum. Great jazz tone. The neck is thick and too skinny (a shade under 1 5/8 at the nut). But it was a great entry to Teles and I have used it at many gigs. Always get compliments, and it is the least hummy electric guitar I own. But it is obviously a lower quality instrument in terms of fit and finish.
I've had no direct experience with the higher quality Squiers but they get good reviews consistently.
A buddy of mine bought a MIM Tele, a very very nice guitar. Fit and finish is excellent, playability is top notch, sound is... like a Tele. From four feet away it looks exactly like a MIUS Tele (basically if you can't see the serial number). With your eyes closed it feels exactly like a MIUS Tele. Leo Fender said that you can buy a Tele made in Mexico by Mexicans or you can buy a Tele made in the US by Mexicans. Same guitars, one is more expensive.
I'd suggest starting with a Squier or a MIM Tele. You might possibly end your search right there. Local options abound on Craigslist. Or you might find yourself chasing an early 50s blackguard...
My other Tele was built up as a partscaster from a body and pickup I bought from Skip Ellis. The body is a semihollow mahogany capped with a flame maple top, finished with a hand-rubbed boiled linseed oil finish and hard wax. There's a thread somewhere on the forum about it. The pickup is a Pete Biltoft Charlie Christian blade single coil sized like a humbucker (HCC model on the Vintage Vibe Guitars website) The neck is by Warmoth. It sounds like.... not a Tele. It's a dedicated jazz guitar with a fatter, warmer, softer tone than most Teles with that semi-hollow quality. And there's no bridge pickup. Looks and feels Tele-ish but to my ears doesn't sound much like a Tele at all.
fep's video demonstrated the warm clean Tele sound through an SS amp. Good sound for jazz and maybe country, too clean IMHO for blues. You could R&B with that sound for rhythm, too. I can get an even warmer tone with my Carus/RE rig that is still clean. I've also got a Cube 60 and get good results with the Affinity through that; I usually use the "Tweed" simulation with the gain set low to minimize distortion. I probably played Affinity though my Polytone, when I had that, but that was so long ago I can't recall. I don't think I was wowed by it, but I wasn't wowed by that amp in general. IMHO it's not hard to find an amp that compliments a Tele well and I'd recommend starting with the one you have.
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QUILTER AVIATOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Mesa Boogie MK 3 has been for sale, for quite awhile.
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I should add, my tele is a Squire Classic Vibe 50s. I think I paid around $300 for it new. The amp is a Quilter MicroPro, the mic was a shure sm57. On the guitar the volume was somewhere around 7 (70% there are no numbers on the knobs), the tone was around 3. I've learned to play around with the volume and tone, you can really get a variety of tones.
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Thanks for your input. I've been doing research, and the Hahns look great to me. Very open to any opinions you may have, however.
Originally Posted by marcwhy
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Sounds great through a Polytone.
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Most of my tracks on Soundcloud are my Tele through my Little Jazz. While I like that tone, I prefer to play through my SuperSonic 22, but I avoid ambiant noise, which my home has a lot of, by using the XLR out on the LJ when recording.
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Telecasters sound great through a vide variety of solid state amps.
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My first amp was a Fender Stage Lead I bought in 1984. It sounds great with all my guitars and is solid state. I still have it. I got the guts up to buy a fussy tube amp in 2013, but I got a 'pain free' tube driven Supersonic 22W and it hasn't been that fussy at all.
The Stage lead is a 100W Solid state amp and is very loud when I need it to be. It as clean as a Vibrolux, but the gain channel is just meh. I use dirt pedals for good gain tones. But for the jazzbox and semihollows the gain channel works to provide a boosted sound which can fill the room with nice tone. More overdriven than distortion, but a good full tone.
The Tele I have has always sounded good on it, so other than it's inherent tone it provides, the Stg. Lead has a good amplified tone from the guitar. The SS22W has great distortion tone, and tends to overwhelm the single coils on the Tele. It still sounds like a Tele, just distorted. My Strats sounds better, as they sound like what they were born to do and any humbucker guitar is enhanced. I tend to use the clean channel on both amps with booster pedals to get a mildly distorted or more overdriven sound.
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My main amp is an Acoustic solid state amp. Both my Teles sound just fine through it. They sound BETTER through tube amps, but once you add a drummer and bassist to the equation, the difference largely disappears.
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My tele is literally the one guitar I know will sound at least "good" plugged into anything. It's why it will always be my #1.
But I'm a BIG proponent of having some sort of preamp pedal in your gig bag at all times. I use a Tech 21 blonde. There's a zillion others.
With that, I can sound pretty much exactly how I want to sound, with any guitar, through pretty much any amp.
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My Tele sounded great through a Fishman Loudbox Artist. Sure, it was big and clean but that is good, too.
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I enjoy my Tele through a 1979 Lab Series L5.
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